A petition filed by Russian telecom operators for building and launching the latest 5G cellular network has been given the green signal by The Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS). The FAS has agreed to a cooperation agreement between the Russian telecom operators for this purpose. As reported by the local media, the petition filed by Russian telecom operators Bashinformsvyaz, Rostelecom, MegaFon and VimpelCom (Beeline trademark) has been approved by the Russian federal competition watchdog.
However, to ensure fair play in the competitive cellular network market, FAS had put forth a condition to provide equivalent access to bands for all the market players of that space. Developing Telecoms report that apart from the pre-accepted condition, the telecom operators are yet to sync up on some other conditions with the antimonopoly authority. These would revolve around the sharing of radio frequencies, the use of infrastructure, and the supply of infrastructure for market players like virtual telecom operators (MVNO).
Opportunity to Provide New 5G Network Infrastructure and Services: FAS
The FAS has notably said that the 5G infrastructure, once built, will be beneficial in providing the latest generation communication services to the people of Russia. They further said that providing access to the radio frequency spectrum that was released for the development of the 5G networks infrastructure and the successive 5G network-based mobile radio telephone communication services will be a great opportunity on the territory of the Russian Federation.
The approach in building the 5G network infrastructure in Russia seems to be a team effort rather than a competitive space in Russia. The venture would be likely seen by The Russian Ministry of Digital Development, Communications, and Mass Media as one single infrastructure that would help in the creation of one network to be used by all mobile telecom operators. In this regard, the FAS had also approved a petition to create a joint 5G venture by Rostelecom, MTS, Vimpelcom (Beeline), and MegaFon, in December 2020.
Industrial Testing Grounds to be Launched Soon
Evgeny Novikov, who is the Deputy Head of The Moscow Department of Information Technologies, has reportedly said that Russia will soon launch the industrial testing grounds in the capital city of Moscow to understand and learn the possibilities and applications of the 5G network.
